Artificial Sweetener Could Be Used As a Safer Insecticide

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A natural, non-toxic insecticide might be in your kitchen, a new
study says.

In what started out as a middle school science project,
scientists discovered that erythritol, the main ingredient in the
artificial sweetener Truvia, is toxic to fruit
flies.

This does not mean anyone using Truvia to sweeten their coffee or
tea is in danger. Erythritol is a natural compound that is
present in several types of fruit. It's sweet like table sugar
but has almost no calories. It was approved by the Food and Drug
Administration as a food additive in 2001 and many studies have
shown humans have a high tolerance for the compound.

Not only does the sweetener kill the flies, but they actually
prefer it to other food choices. The researchers who conducted
the study are now seeking to patent an erythritol-based
insecticide.

"We are not going to see the planet sprayed with erythritol, and
the chances for widespread crop application are slim," Sean
O'Donnell, a professor of biology at Drexel University in
Philadelphia who worked on the experiment, said in a statement.
"But on a small scale, in places where insects will come to a
bait, consume it and die, this could be huge."

The first part of the study came from a science project by Simon
Kaschock-Marenda, who is now in ninth grade and is the son of
Daniel Marenda, a biology professor at Drexel. The father-son
team first tested the method on fruit flies raised in small vials
in their home. They divided the flies into groups and fed them
food mixed with the artificial
sweeteners Truvia, Splenda, Equal, Sweet'N Low or Pure Via.

The flies that were raised on food containing Truvia had much
shorter life spans than flies raised on the other sweeteners.
Flies that ate food without Truvia lived between 38 and 51 days.
But the average life span of flies raised on food with Truvia was
only 5.8 days. Marenda realized it was time to move the
experiment out of the house and into the lab, and he brought in
O'Donnell for help.

The next step was to determine what part of the sweetener was
causing the toxic effect. Erythritol is the main ingredient in
Truvia, and the scientists suspected it might be the toxin. The
researchers gave flies food with Truvia, Pure Via, pure
erythritol or sucrose (table sugar). Flies that consumed food
with either Truvia or erythritol were dead within a week. The
other flies lived for two weeks before the researchers
discontinued their observation.

The flies consumed more than twice as much erythritol as sucrose
when given the choice between the two, suggesting that the files
preferred the former. Because of this, scientists think
erythritol could successfully be used to bait flies and act as an
effective insecticide.

The researchers also wanted to know how much erythritol it would
take to kill off the flies. Flies that were given food with low
levels of erythritol (about 0.1 grams in 10 milliliters of water)
showed no difference in life span than flies raised on food
without any erythritol. But flies that were given food with high
levels of erythritol (2.4 grams in 10 milliliters of water) were
dead within two days.

The researchers don't know exactly how erythritol killed the
flies, but other studies have shown that it can inhibit an
insect's ability to absorb nutrients and water and their ability
to move around. More studies are needed to determine if
erythritol is toxic to any other insects.